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Tour de France Tour de France 2022: Final rest day thread

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Final GC outcome?


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I think there will still be one hell of a fight for yellow. 2 minutes is not at all much with the pyrenees coming up.

It will also depend on how Vingegaard has been hit by the fall and how much Wout still has in him to help Jonas in the high mountains which is not his thing as he focussed on sprint training mainly this year.

Wout is amazing but cannot do wonders.

So Jonas will likely only have Kuss on the last climbs which could be problematic.
 
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I think there will still be one hell of a fight for yellow. 2 minutes is not at all much with the pyrenees coming up.

It will also depend on how Vingegaard has been hit by the fall and how much Wout still has in him to help Jonas in the high mountains which is not his thing as he focussed on sprint training mainly this year.

Wout is amazing but cannot do wonders.

So Jonas will likely only have Kuss on the last climbs which could be problematic.
Benoot could perhaps also offer a bit of help, but he also crashed hard yesterday, so I wouldn´t expect a lot from him..
 
Yeah he def try to do some work at the start of the stage at least but when it goes up, Jonas will be noticeably be almost alone probably
Stage 16: Until the foot of Port de Lers I would expect van Hooydonck and Laporte to ride. From there until the final ramp of Mur de Pequere it should be Benoot and van Aert. At the Muur then Kuss and Vingegaard have to take over. Just looked it up: The last 3,6 km of the final ramp have 11,4 %, which is super hard...
 
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It's fairly clear that Pog is not capable of riding Vingegaard off his wheel this Tour, even on the shorter more explosive climbs. Vingegaard is just insanely strong. So he will not beat him in the Pyrenees either barring an imposion of sorts from JV, a crash or something unforeseen. Vingegaard will just continue with this defensive tactic of glueing himself to Pog's wheel for the remainder of the tour. It's pretty drab to watch as a spectator but it does give options to the other teams and Ineos in particular. They have 3 riders in the top 10 and at some point they are going to have to take a risk and try to do something. Barring Pidcock's incredible win on Alpe d'huez they have ridden very conservatively for almost the entire tour and Yates and Thomas have just ridden on wheels for the whole race. If either Pogacar or Thomas can reduce the gap to less than a minute before the final TT then there is a chance of winning the tour but that will only happen via some outside the box thinking. It's Jumbos race to lose.
 
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Carapaz gained 3 and a half minutes on Nibali and Roglic in 2019 Giro on 2 stages while they were busy staring at each other, so in theory a third rider can benefit from the stalemate in this Tour.

Problem is that I doubt that Vingegaard will be conclusively isolated early enough as the team will still be very good and Pyrenees are relatively easy except for the last stage.
 
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If it was Nibali or Contador in Thomas' position, they would absolutely be planning something

Older rider that's won the Tour before and has another podium, there is nothing really to lose, the race leader has never won a grand tour and has a slightly weakened team.

Vingegaard has shown a tendency to panic and make poor decisions, he has lost his 2 strongest domestiques, he is totally vulnerable, like Kruijsvijk/Chaves in the 2016 Giro.

Meanwhile you have the strongest gc team in the race at this point if you are Ineos.

But it seems Thomas just doesn't have that instinct. He is naturally totally Conservative when it comes to racing. I'm sure he would rather win but he probably won't race for it. I hope he does.

Vincenzo would be sitting at the table with Michele Scarponi discussing how to break Jumbo in this final week
 
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Actually, I see no reason for Thomas ti try something. He has won the Tour, being second once and has ~3 minutes on Bardet (with the TT of course). However, question is if he is strong enough.

Regarding the 2 best, when I look at tomorrow's stage, it's maybe the best possibility for Pog to take time. Last time suits him to the toe ~20 minutes effort with steep ramp (should be exactly his cup of tea) and a downhill/false flat at eh end, assuming he is the better rider DH. If he doesn't get something tomorrow, I find it hard to believe he'll get anything in the remaining mountains.
And new Rasmussen isn't old Rasmussen in the TTs.

Vingo's goal is "easy". Don't panic, don't crash uphill and stick to Tadej's wheel.... Well, maybe not so easy after all.
 

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